Charities/ Benefactors

Alderman Henry Bengough (1739 – 1818)
Every day, hundreds of cars drive past Henry Bengough’s lasting legacy to the people of Bristol, and yet comparatively few people know of its existence, and even less know of its history. Bengough’s House lies on the roundabout off Passage Road/Crow Lane, Henbury, opposite the Old Crow public house. Opened in 1996, it is a residential/nursing home, providing accommodation and care for forty older people. It is owned and managed by the Trustees of Bristol Charities, and is named after Alderman Henry Bengough.
learn more

Ada Vachell Sister Ada wrote ‘The Guild of the Handicapped for our members, old and young, have each some weightier impediment they must carry through life. We want to try and help them to carry it bravely, even smilingly – to teach, in spite of physical disability the straight race can be run, the good fight fought’
learn more

Mary Carpenter Mary Carpenter’s founded the first reformatory for girls in England. Her work began at the Red Lodge in 1854, and this was the model for reform schools in other parts of the country. Mary Carpenter made a profound contribution to the development of more humane and enlightened treatment for young offenders. The liberality of her educational methods and principles stand in stark contrast to the dominant ideology and practices of her time.
learn more

Robert Kitchen
At the offices of Bristol Charities there hangs a fine portrait of Robert Kitchin, and a very unusual wall decoration, a 7 foot wooden beam, with the carved inscription: “This building is at the charge of Robart Kitchin, late Alderman of Bristoll, for the reliefe of the poor.”
learn more

Mrs Mary Ann Peloquin The first party of French Huguenots, driven out of their country by the persecution of Louis XIV (the Sun King), landed at Bristol in December 1681. Initially the Mayor and Aldermen were vexed as to what they could do for these refugees from religious persecution. The Mayor was concerned by the arrival of these religious dissenters, who received so much public support and sympathy, due to their plight. When another party arrived in August 1682, the Corporation felt obliged to offer financial assistance, £42 10s, for their relief. This second group included merchants, a doctor, three surgeons and nine weavers, in addition to a majority of merchant seamen and their families.
learn more

Richard Reynolds It was the proud boast of Bristolians in the nineteenth century that their city stood at the head of all other cities, for the “magnitude and the diversity of its benevolent institutions.” Certainly the city had produced many individuals who had left substantial sums to charity, many of whom are little remembered today. One of those great benefactors was Richard Reynolds (1735 to 1816), who played a crucial part in the development of one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution, and became renowned for his generosity in the city of his birth, and elsewhere.`
learn more

George Thomas
George Thomas was one of the wealthiest men in Bristol, a Quaker, a leading member of the Liberal Party and a social reformer. He was also a great benefactor, at a time of immense change in society, and he was in the forefront of the creation of a number of institutions that were to radically improve the quality of life for the ordinary people of Bristol. He is one of those people who had a profound effect on the life of the city, and yet he is almost forgotten today.
learn more

Dr Thomas White (1550-1624)
Thomas White was born in the Parish of Temple in 1550, the son of John White, a clothier. After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford he settled in London and was promoted rapidly within the Church.
learn more

John Whitson John Whitson typifies the best of the Elizabethan / Early Stuart merchants. He lived from 1557 until 1629 and he was the most prominent and influential citizen of his day. He was also one of Bristol’s earliest and most generous philanthropists, being best known as the founder of the Red Maids’ School.
learn more